Did Americans In 1776 Have British Accents?
Have you ever wondered if the Founding Fathers spoke with a British accent? I know I have. Well here is the answer. The typical English accent didn't develop until after the Revolutionary War, so Americans actually speak proper English. Here comes the science. Credit Nick Patrick for this well sourced info: Reading David McCullough’s 1776 , I found myself wondering: Did Americans in 1776 have British accents? If so, when did American accents diverge from British accents? The answer surprised me. I’d always assumed that Americans used to have accents similar to today’s British accents, and that American accents diverged after the Revolutionary War, while British accents remained more or less the same. Americans in 1776 did have British accents in that American accents and British accents hadn’t yet diverged. That’s not too surprising. What’s surprising, though, is that those accents were much closer to today’s American accents than to today’s British accents. While both have chang...